Karlis Ozols

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Kārlis Ozols (born August 9, 1912, Riga – died March 23, 2001, Australia) was a Latvian-Australian chess player.

Ozols represented Latvia at eighth board (+7 -1 =7) in unofficial Chess Olympiad at Munich 1936 where he won individual bronze medal. He also played at fourth board (+2 -5 =3) in the 7th Olympiad at Stockholm 1937.^[1]

In 1937, he tied for 17-18th in Kemeri. The event was won by three players: Salo Flohr, Vladimirs Petrovs and Samuel Reshevsky. In 1939, he took 16th in Kemeri-Riga (Flohr won). In 1941, he took 8th in Riga (1st Latvian SSR-ch, Alexander Koblencs won).^[2] In 1944, he won the Riga championship. In Spring 1945 he left Riga by sea just before the advancing Soviet forces arrived. He landed in West Germany and spent the next several years in various D.P. (Displaced Person) camps across Germany. As other displaced persons from the Baltic countries after World War II he played in a number of small international events, including The Matisons Memorial Tourney in Hanau (near Frankfurt) in 1947, which was won by his fellow Latvian Lūcijs Endzelīns, ahead of Elmārs Zemgalis, Efim Bogoljubow and Hönlinger. Ozols was equal fifth.

He immigrated to Australia in 1949. Ozols won the Victorian Championship 9 times. He jointly won the Australian Championship in 1956 and became an International Master at Correspondence Chess in 1972.^[3]

Ozols was accused of taking part in war atrocities during World War II, but was never prosecuted.^[4] ^[5] ^[6]